I spoke recently at Grandma Clara's funeral, and I could honestly tell the mourners gatherers that I had never know anyone more excited to see Jesus. Every morning Clara would kneel by her bed and spend precious hours with he rSavior and Lover; later in the day, just the sigh of that corner of her bed would bring joy-filled tears and a deep anticipation of the next morning spent kneeling in His presence.
Grandma Clara acted toward God the way we act toward people we're madly in love with.
When you are truly in love, you go to great lengths to be with the one you love. You'll drive for hours to be together, even if it's only for a short while. You don't mind staying up late to talk. Walking in the rain is romantic, not annoying. You'll willingly spend a small fortune on the one you're crazy about. When you are apart from each other, it's painful, even miserable. He or she is all you think about; you jump at any chance to be together.
In his book God Is the Gospel, John Piper essentially asks whether you are in love with God:
The critical question for our generation-and for every generation- is this: If you could have heaven, with no sickness and with all the friends you ever had on earth, and all the food you ever liked, and all the leisure activities you ever enjoyed, and all the natural beauties you ever saw, all the physical pleasures you ever tasted, and no human conflict or any natural disasters, could you be satisfied with heaven, if Christ was not there?
How many of you will read those words and say, "You know, I might be okay with that?" If you are as deeply in love with Gad as Grandma Clara was, you know you could never be satisfied in a heaven without Christ."
- Francis Chan, Crazy Love
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